The Tower of High Sorcery - Palanthas
The following is an excerpt from the book "The Atlas of the Dragonlance World." This is a description of the Tower from the Dragonlance series, which is what we base our channel on.
The greatest of the five Towers of High Sorcery was the one at Palanthas. The dragon orbs were first created in this tower. During the rising fear of the mages during the reign of the Kingpriest the Tower of Palanthas was abandoned, cursed by its last inhabitant who cast himself from the "Death Walk" to the spikes of the gate far below. This mage bid that the tower be left uninhabited until the coming of the master of past and present - Raistlin.
The tower stood amidst a haunted stand of tall oak trees known as Shoikan Grove. Within the grove was a fence. Its gates originally were of gold and silver, but they blackened with the mage's curse. Likewise, the tower itself changed from the red-streaked white stone originally wrested from the ground by the mage-builders to a black marble. Thus the tower stood in stark contrast to the gleaming white marble of the rest of Palanthas. After Raistlin occupied the tower, he repaired the crubled turrets and topped the minarets with blood-red spires.
The interior of the tower was a simple cylinder, hollow in the center from base to peak, with a stair spiraling around its edge, broken by occasional narrow landings and doors to rooms. The stair began at ground level near the rune-carved wooden door which was the only entrance. Far below the surface, reachable on via magic, was another room carved magically by Raistlin: the Chamber of Seeing. The small circular room centered on a round pool of water that burned with an eternal flame. Here dwelled Raistlin's failed creations, the Live Ones.
Dalamar's chambers were on the left of the stairs after the 539th step. The quarters were "sumptuously appointed," although no description was given beyond a table, pluch carpet, fireplace, and bed. Raistlin's study was also comfortable, with large chairs, wooden tables, a huge fireplace at one end, and a massive desk at the opposite end that held the dragon orb. Books lined the walls, their continuity borken only by the window. The study could have been lower in the tower than Dalamar's chambers, however, for when Crysania and Caramon climbed to the laboratory in the top, the climb seemed so endless that even Caramon was exhausted. Even beyond the level of the laboratory the stair continued for two more flights, however. There it ended at a small, arched wooden door - the exit which led to the outer walkway, Death Walk.
The great laboratory (shadowy in spite of its windows) was lined with bookshelves above the worktables. In the center was a stone table large enough to hold a minotaur - normally twelve feet in height - with room to spare. The focal point of the laboratory was at the very back of the chamber, a door of steel surrounded by five dragon heads: the Portal to the Abyss.
The presence of the portal was not always constant, however. With the abandonment of the tower before th Cataclysm the portal was moved to the fortress of Zhaman. But with the destruction of Zhaman a century later, the portal was returned to Palanthas. During its absence there was only a blank wall. After the battle of Palanthas, when Raistlin remained in the Abyss to prevent the return of the Queen of Darkness, Dalamar covered the portal, locked the laboratory, and ordered the guardians to allow none to enter.